Prep roundup, Sheehan wins singles title, ED pair claim doubles crown

Wednesday

Oct 10, 2012 at 12:01 AM

SWANSBORO — Swansboro’s Morgan Sheehan is the best singles tennis player in the East Central 2-A Conference while the East Duplin team of Savannah Pierson and Abigail Grady are the league’s best in doubles.

Staff reports

SWANSBORO — Swansboro’s Morgan Sheehan is the best singles tennis player in the East Central 2-A Conference while the East Duplin team of Savannah Pierson and Abigail Grady are the league’s best in doubles.

Sheehan won the singles crown by defeating Topsail’s Megan Hampton 6-2, 6-3 in the finals while the Pierson-Grady team won the doubles title with a 6-3, 7-6 (8-6) win over Clinton’s Hannah Smith and Caroline Barwick.

Sheehan advanced to the NCHSAA 2-A East Regionals on Oct. 19-20 at Greene Central High and will be joined by Hampton as well as East Duplin’s Rebekah Bryant, Richlands’ Kalina Taylor and Topsail’s Franca Buffalino.

“This is a good confidence boost,” Sheehan said. “I feel like I’m peaking at the right time.”

The Pierson-Grady team will be joined in the regionals in doubles by Smith-Barwick, Emily Scarborough-Katie Yingling of Swansboro, Caroline Tobin-Lauren Smith of Topsail and Brittany Russ-Mary Lang of Croatan.

“I think that they have just been motivated this whole year and they’ve been strong leaders,” East Duplin coach Marsha Pierson said of her top doubles team. “They fought really hard and they wanted it so bad.”

The Pierson-Grady team opened with a first-round bye before defeating Kendall Sorrell-Abigail Moore of Richlands 6-2, 6-1. Pierson-Grady followed with a 7-6 (7-4), 6-4 win over Swansboro’s Emily Scarborough-Katie Yingling.

Then came the final match that saw Pierson and Grady not necessarily play their best, although they were still good enough to win.

“They made a lot of errors during the match,” Marsha Pierson said. “They were playing a very strong team and they just had to work hard at it.”

Savannah Pierson said she and Grady “got down” on themselves momentary in the final before regaining their momentum.

“It was really a battle within ourselves,” she said. “In between games we sat down and told ourselves that we wanted this and that we could do this. We backed each other up.”

This was the first ECC title for the duo.

Meanwhile, it was Sheehan second title in three years. She won it in 2010 as a sophomore before finishing second last year.

“I thought Morgan stayed really focused in,” said coach Jim Sheehan, who is Morgan’s father. “She moved the ball around really well against Megan and served significantly better than the last time.”

Sheehan, the ECC’s top seed, lost 6-0, 6-2 to second-seeded Hampton earlier this season.

“I thought I played a lot better than I played at Topsail. I kept my composure a lot better,” said Sheehan, who lost the final’s first game. “When we played at Topsail I tried to hit everything for a winner, but today I just eased myself into the match.”

Sheehan opened with a bye before defeating Buffalino 6-2, 6-0 and Bryant 6-2, 6-2.

n South Central 5, White Oak 4: South Central won four of six singles and claimed the No. 3 doubles to edge visiting White Oak in the Coastal 3-A Conference regular-season finale for both teams heading into the league tournament on Thursday in Greenville.

White Oak’s No. 1 doubles team of Tia Decker and Sarah Hambright won to finish the season undefeated in league matches at 14-0. The duo is 16-2 overall.

n Richlands boys, Swansboro girls win: Isaac Martinez led a trio of Richlands runners who finished fourth through sixth to help the Wildcats win a four-team East Central 2-A Conference meet in Deep Run.

Swansboro won the girls’ meet behind Brenna Kate Grass, who won in 19:00 as the Pirates took three of the top four places.

Nick Pugh of Croatan won the boys’ meet in 16:39 while Reid Henderson of Swansboro was third in 17:33. But Martinez came in at 17:34 for fourth, the same time as teammate Dillon Emch, who was credited with fifth. Maximino Smith was sixth at 17:35.

n Grass wins: Swansboro’s Brenna Kate Grass won the girls’ 5K championship in the 2012 Bo Run at Boyd Lee Park in Greenville this past weekend while the Pirates’ boys won the overall team invitational title.

The event was between championship and invitational runs.

In the championship event, Grass won in 20:12.46 to beat out First Flight’s Jessica Wallace, who was second at 20:32.36. Swansboro’s Mariah Butchko was 13th at 22:41.84 while teammates Tiffany Saulsgiver was 15th at 22:48.9, Mia Horvath 16th at 22:53.16 and Jessica Brinson 20th in 23:58.04

With 48 points, Swansboro was second to Wilson Fike (40 points).

The Pirates won the boys’ invitational team title with 58 points, easily out-pointing second place Farmville Central, which had 90 points.

Leading Swansboro was Bryan Mol, who was fifth in 19:15.63 while teammates Kris Parker and Griffin McCullar finished 10th and 11th in 19:53.56 and 19:57.17. Swansboro’s Brian Ring was 15th (20:13.52), James Bushway 17th (20:18.61) and Daniel Baumgardner 21st (20:31.72).

In the girls’ invitational, Swansboro’s Jessalyn Crichton was ninth in 34:49.46 while teammate Brooke Bingham was 16th in 25:30.28.